Resultado narrado por "Cathy Dobson" em Todas as categorias

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of stories and novels and is frequently credited as being the father of science fiction. 'A Catastrophe' is a poignant tale of a shopkeeper whose business is on the verge of bankruptcy when a dreadful catastrophe strikes the family, just in time to save him from total ruin.

John Buchan (1875 - 1940) was a scottish writer, barrister, Member of Parliament and later become Baron Tweedsmuir and Govenor-General of Canada. While he was most famous for adventure stories, such as The Thirty-nine Steps, he was also popular for his supernatural horror stories, of which The Watcher by the Threshold is a prime example.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the preeminent figure in late 19th-century detective fiction. A physician by profession, he soon found such popularity as a writer of detective stories that his writing was far more profitable than his medical practice. 'The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire' is a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Holmes and Watson are contacted by a country gentleman whose Peruvian wife has been caught red-handed sucking the blood from her baby's neck. Can there be any explanation other than that the woman is a vampire?

Poe's humorous political satire, recounting a bizarre story of a group of academics who unwrap a Mummy late at night, and conduct a series of experiments upon the body. Unexpectedly the embalmed body wakes up and a most unusual and entertaining conversation ensues, in which the amazing achievements of the ancient Egyptians becomes manifest...and the achievements of modern Americans less so.

When the new captain takes over command of his first ship for the homeward voyage from the Gulf of Siam, he surprises his crew by taking the first nightwatch himself. While alone on deck he is surprised to find a lone swimmer in the sea who comes on board. The stranger is a murderer escaping justice, but is also eerily an almost exact doppelganger of the captain himself. Not only does he look identical, but the two almost seem to share the same thoughts and secrets. Rather than turn his fugitive-double over to the authorities, the captain hides him in his own cabin.

Edred and Elfrieda Arden belong to an ancient noble family which has fallen on hard times. Orphaned and living with their aunt who takes in lodgers at the seaside, life is dull and frustrating. But when Edred suddenly inherits the title of Lord Arden - and a medieval ruined castle to go with it, the adventures are only just starting. The children discover a magic spell through which they meet the Mouldiwarp - a white mole who is also the emblem of the Ardens.

On the surface, Immensee is a simple love story, of an old man, Reinhardt Werner, remembering Elisabeth, the lost sweetheart of his youth, who married his best friend, Erich. Reinhardt had neglected their relationship when he had gone away to university, and after two years when he failed to write to Elisabeth, she gave up waiting and accepted a marriage proposal from Erich, a wealthy young farmer with a fine house on the shores of the Immensee.

When a letter of great significance is stolen from the royal palace in Paris, the prefect of police is at great pains to discover its whereabouts. The identity of the thief is known, but try as the detectives will, they are unable to pinpoint the hiding place where the incriminating letter is secreted. When the Prefect approaches Dupin for his advice on the matter, the latter sees the solution immediately. An insight from which he is able to profit handsomely. Poe at his most ingenious!

Harry Graham was an English writer of light verse, popular fiction and history. He is best remembered for his grotesque and humorous verses which parody the children’s cautionary verses of his day. His most successful work was his series of hilariously cruel Ruthless Rhymes, first published in 1898 under the pseudonym Col. D. Streamer. Billy in one of his nice new sashes, Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes; Now, although the room grows chilly, I haven’t the heart to poke poor Billy.

Kipling’s classic tale taken from the Just So Stories. The camel who lives in the howling desert is reluctant to join the other animals in working for man. He gets his comeuppance when he is magically given a hump, so that he can work three days in a row without stopping to eat.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) is best known for his fictional priest-detective, Father Brown. In "The Invisible Man", Father Brown is able to solve the mystery of the jilted lover who is able to track his beloved, threaten and attack his rival and yet is never seen by anybody, even those who are specifically on the look-out for him. Can it be that he really is invisible? And when he does manage to murder his rival, how does he make the body disappear too?

The Secret of the Barbican is the story of a small-town solicitor who on a chance visit to a local museum in a distant town discovers a set of rare siege coins. He instantly recognizes them as the set of coins which had been stolen from his own town corporation many years previously. He immediately sets out to investigate...and the thief's trail takes him to some quite extraordinary places....

"The Lady Or The Tiger?" is Frank R. Stockton's most famous work, first published in 1882. The semi-barbaric ruler of an ancient kingdom has devised an unusual method of justice. Offenders are placed in the arena of an amphitheatre where they must choose between two doors. Behind one is a hungry tiger and behind the other a beautiful woman whom they will marry. Their fate is left entirely to chance. When the king's daughter's secret lover is accused, only she knows which door hides which destiny.

The Voice in the Night is an uncanny story about a ship becalmed in fog in the middle of the Pacific. In the night, the watch hears a voice hailing the ship. It would seem to be a lone man in a rowing boat, but the individual does not wish to be seen. He is starving and urgently wants food - but despite this, he will not approach the ship and vehemently rejects the idea of being rescued. Instead they have to float some provisions out to him in a crate, which he takes off to a nearby island where his fiancée is dying of hunger.

When Frank Casillis, an eccentric independently wealthy vagabond, finds himself near an old friend's pavilion on a remote part of the Scottish coast, he discovers some mysterious nocturnal goings-on. The house is being visited under cover of darkness ... strange figures land on the coast ... and then he is himself the victim of a savage knife attack. Robert Louis Stevenson is the master of the action adventure. The Pavilion on the Links is a classic of the genre - a secret plot, a mysterious and beautiful girl, a villain, mortal danger ... all in a wild and windswept setting. Splendid!

The Balloon Hoax was first published in The Sun newspaper in New York in 1844. Originally presented as a true story, it detailed European Monck Mason's trip across the Atlantic Ocean in only three days in a hot air balloon. The story turned out to be a hoax and the paper published a retraction two days later (rumoured to also have been written by Poe himself) admitting the deception.The story ignited a fever of excitement in New York: Poe himself claimed that the Sun building was "besieged" by people wanting copies of the newspaper.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'Under the Knife' is an eerie firsthand account by a patient of a surgical operation he experiences, which he already knows he will not survive.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) was a British Victorian-era novelist famous for her sensationalist writing. "The Cold Embrace" is a ghost story about a pair of lovers who promise to be true to each other. The young man declares he will even return from beyond the grave to be with his lover, but she declares that only a suicide can do this, as they are denied entrance to heaven. Shortly after this, the young man travels away and after some time neglects to write anymore.

D.H. Lawrence's famous short story, set against the background of the First World War, and examining the quintessence of Englishness, relationships and paternity in an idyllic rural setting. Egbert and Winifred are deeply in love when they first marry and settle in the picturesque thatched cottage which Winifred's father has given her on his estate. But as their relationships develops and alters, and as they have children and become increasingly dependent financially on Winifred's father, the cracks in their relationship become ever deeper.

'Wailing Well' is the story of a group of boy scouts camping somewhere on the downs in the south of England who are warned not to go into a particular field which contains a single clump of trees. A local shepherd relates a strange story about the place, which he refers to as Wailing Well. He claims to have seen four skeletal figures walking through the field, three women and one man, all walking towards the clump of trees where the well is. One of the young scouts determines to investigate for himself....